Jozef Činčala

"It was really terrible in Dukla Pass. The Germans were using their Minnie rockets. They were similar to the Russian katyusha rockets. The smoke was just all over. People of Dukla stayed hiding in their houses. I entered one house. Before I did I saw some wounded people. I saw even more death people. Some poor guy was lying in the ditch. The mine exploded right next to him and it ripped his entire chest off. I was being well aware of what may happen to me. I entered one big house. The people were hiding in the basement. I found lots of holy pictures scattered there. My Holy Virgin that went with me all the way from Dukla came from there. It’s old and shabby, but I keep it as a memory of those days."

"It was a drill indeed. The German officers were in charge of the whole training. I was included to the tank troop. The tanks were huge; we used to call them ´ten tons pan´. We must have washed them with the fuel during the winter. Later I have signed for the health care class. The meal was good, but the exercises...! We were practicing the tank rides in swamp near by Martinské Hole place. We practiced attacks in mud etc. When we returned from the field we didn’t even have time to wash ourselves, so we washed the clothes in the tub. After that we went for lunch. We were starving. For lunch we got dumplings sprinkled with dried ground pears. We got two dumplings each. They were big though, but for a young man it was almost nothing. So we kept coming back for more. But the cooks were experienced enough, so instead of giving us more food they used to beat us with the flour bags, so we had to go wash our clothes again. It was nothing like today - today, soldiers have all the service they need."

"We slept on the ground. Later on we had to go to the woods and create our dugouts to have a place to stay. It was a poor life. Our clothes were only the army uniform and a coat. That was all we had. During September and October it was still ok, but when the winter came, our shoes were absolutely not good enough. It was twenty or thirty degrees below zero. Inside the dugouts it was warm though, we used to have a small stove there. But one day we must have lay several hours in the snow waiting for the Germans. We got out in the very morning when it was still dark outside. It was a special SS unit we waited for. We waited almost until the afternoon. They were passing through several villages and were taking whatever they liked there. We didn’t have any supplies with us. We ate three months without a pint of salt for an example. We used the birch tree ashes instead of salt. So we waited there for the Germans to come. That afternoon one hundred and ten Germans died there and one hundred of horses with them. The next day we went to collect their weapons."

"They sent us on the reconnaissance - during the day. We were supposed to explore the opposite hill. It was basically leafless, there was only stream surrounded by few bushes. We walked along the stream. In case of need it would provide at least some shelter. The Germans hiding on top of this hill found about us and started to fire on us... We had to lay down by the water. We stayed there until the evening. It was already in October! It was very cold. At night we back off, but we didn’t know what to do...The people were all gone, there was only some sheep-fold. So we all lay down and spent the night there. In the morning we found out that we were sleeping on a yard dung. But we were comfortable."